Talk:Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy/sandbox

=Editor's Notes=
 * This is a sandbox to develop a new section to replace the existing section of the same name.
 * The idea is to develop a cohesive text, rather than the time-line like listing of quotations.
 * Material can be borrowed from later sections; I think it likely the article will end up much more succinct when the dust settles
 * I won't worry about references just yet, but feel free to add them in as you see fit.
 * I've given an nominal outline for now.
 * This is a sketch, a work in progress - POV/NPOV will be a problem, but try to develop or fix rather than delete.
 * I suspect, perhaps hope, that the section "Reactions and congressional investigation" will go through this same process next, so keep that in mind.
 * Edit these notes as you see fit. Bdushaw 19:57, 28 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I put it into outline form. My experience is that the text tends to write itself when the outline is fleshed out, and it makes it easier to figure out what to dump before putting a lot of effort into prose. I hope this makes cite matching easier too. -- Yellowdesk 13:21, 29 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm not expecting all of my additions to survive. Just getting the potential topics listed. -- Yellowdesk 17:57, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Just a note to say I'm very impressed with the job here. Well done! -- Sholom 16:12, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Some Sources to review
Media Matters:
 * Search on fired attorneys Media Matters critique of coverage. Relevant. About fifty items on 3+ pages.
 * Search on Goodling Media Matters Goodling
 * Search on McNulty Media Matters Mcnulty
 * and so on

Sourcewatch
 * Access to a gigantic chronological bibliography of sources

TPMMuckraker
 * Search on "US Attorneys" - a treasure trove, as well as links to standard media sources, original documents, testimony, etc.
 * Search on Monica Goodling
 * Search on Bradley Schlozman
 * Search on Civil Rights Division
 * Search on Vote Fraud stuff
 * and so on


 * Check the growing sources at Talk:Dismissal_of_U.S._attorneys_controversy timeline
 * also Talk:Dismissal_of_U.S._attorneys_controversy
 * and [[Talk:Dismissal_of_U.S._attorneys_controversy

=New Section=

Background: The players
Somewhere in the article, or in a separate article it's disrable to track the offices and personnel


 * DOJ
 * Who departed from 2004 through 2007
 * Deputey AG Comey departed: date
 * AG Ashcroft departed: Feb? 2005
 * Chief of staff for Ashcroft: ___
 * Others
 * http://justice.gov/dojorg.htm (DOJ Organization Chart)
 * Who arrived or was promoted:
 * AG Gonozales
 * Sampson (already working in Ashcroft's office within DOJ)
 * Goodling promoted from __ to __ (dates)
 * Deputy AG McNulty, departed ___, a number of months after Ashcroft left.
 * Assistant AG?
 * Others


 * White House Offices: (2002 onward?)
 * Office of Legal Counsel to the President
 * Gonzales
 * Miers (Trace her positions, she was promoted when Gonzales became AG)
 * Sampson came from counsel's office, when Gonzales was there.
 * What is Rove's Department?
 * Who does Rove supervise
 * Is the "Legislative" office different from Rove's operation?
 * Who is whithin the White House Lesiglative office?
 * Who is supervised by Rove?
 * What other WH offices signed off on the attorney dismissal list?
 * President?
 * Chief of Staff's office
 * Andrew Card
 * and others that signed off?


 * Congress: 2005/2006/2007
 * Senate Judiciary committee
 * Chairs: Spector (dates: __ to __), Leahy (dates), Hatch was chair when?
 * committee Counsel, during Spector's chairmanship aided USA Patriot Act Section 502 to become law.
 * also include Spector's own counsel, who reported on the change-he would have been involved
 * Sub-committee on Justice Dept admin:
 * Chairs, Ranking members since 2004+


 * House Judiciary 2005=2007
 * Chairs, Ranking Members since 2004+
 * committee counsel staff
 * Admin Sub committee: chairs, ranking

Planning at the White House

 * Planning started with the notion of dismissing all 93, but was agreed that that was too disruptive.
 * By persons:
 * don't forget to include staff below Meiers and Rove


 * Plan was then to dismiss some 20% of U.S. Attorneys.
 * when, who agreed


 * Documented that the motivations were political:
 * to develop the field of conservatives,
 * to give others a chance to serve and
 * boost their political credentials, etc.


 * The influencing elections angle:
 * There's some background on the declining majorities in Congress, and that Bush on election 2004 really did not know if they had won until evening.
 * There's a Frontline PBS program on Rove that describes that day; probably citable sources are to be found.
 * "Voter Fraud" campaign promoted by Rove
 * the connection to voter caging
 * See RNC, Tim Griffin{Monica Goodling for 2000 campaign efforts, opposition research, how were they invovled in 2004?
 * Goodling testifies in response to question, last half of hering, McNulty informed about Griffin's voter caging efforts, trouble for confirmation as USA.
 * The legal angle - presures on USAs
 * citable surces?
 * White House fielding complaints from governors, House, Senate members
 * From whom
 * About whom
 * To whom at the WH
 * What candidates involved? Both R and D


 * The Department of Justice had been seeking a way to appoint U.S. Attorneys without Senate approval prior to 2005.
 * Was the change in the Patriot Act part of the scheme to replace USAs? Circumstantial?
 * Cite to Testimony of McNulty carrying the reasons that DOJ wanted to keep the change:
 * http://judiciary.house.gov/Media/PDFS/EOUSA151-159.pdf
 * Feinstein believed the change was engineered by the White House/DoJ to create a loophole.
 * Leahy believes the DoJ was exploiting the loophole
 * Discuss why the change was undiscussed in committee or conference.


 * May need to outline the leading staff in Meiers and Rove's deparments and other White House departments
 * Example: Sara Taylor:
 * Margaret Talev and Marisa Taylor. Officials rebuked for disclosing Rove's connection to firing of U.S. attorney McClatchy Washington Bureau, Jun. 12, 2007


 * The staffers were the people Goodling / Sampson talked to, not the big wigs
 * Sampson describes in testimony that he was guessing about Rove/Meiers, based on Staff interest.

Plans migrate to the Department of Justice

 * Sampson works for Ashcroft at DOJ.
 * What got him hired there?
 * Start year.
 * Postiions. Trace changes in title
 * Get in the changing jobs, and visit to VA as special assistant U.S. attorney. Under what USA?


 * Gonzales arrives after 2004 election.
 * See This article on DOJ turnover: (Newsweek June 4, 2006 Isikoff)
 * Describe continuing genesis of dismissal plans
 * describe (if/how) they brought them with them.


 * Unprecedented White House-DoJ communications.
 * Find cite that hundreds of people can talk to DOJ from Executive Office of the President
 * Compare to Clinton - some very small number, perhaps four.

Development of dismissal lists

 * People on the list were targeted for what reason?
 * Absent misconduct, why choose some over others?
 * Not being team players?
 * Not being loyal "Bushies"?
 * Elections issues (McKay, Iglesias, Graves?)
 * Competence (Ryan?)
 * Just to give the position to someone else (Cummins?)
 * To hamper investigations of conservatives (DiBiagio, Lam (investigating Foggo), Charlton?)
 * Responding to complaints of Representatives, Senators, Governors,
 * What's the background that encouraged complaints to White House
 * How did people know WH was responsive?


 * Discuss why standard evaluations were not used.
 * Some acronym, probably out of Exec. Office of USAttorneys
 * Describe standard review process (good luck finding info on that)


 * Put in Details reciting all of the people who were once in and out?


 * Aftermath of (2006?) elections/election performance as a motivation?
 * See again Newsweek cite for June 4, 2007 Isakoff
 * The Hospital visit as a key experience between Justice and White House / Bush
 * Discuss find sources that talk about how well / poorly plan would work for Republican Congress

Origin of the list of attorneys to be fired
It is not clear where the names of the attorneys came from that ended up on the list of attorneys to be dismissed. Gonzales testified that the decisions were based on recommendations by senior staff, in particular Kyle Sampson, and that he approved the recommendations. He also testified on 19 April, 2007 that he wished he had had the deputy attorney general Paul McNulty "more involved, directly involved," but stated on 15 May, 2007, the day after McNulty resigned, that McNulty was primarily responsible for the firings: "He signed off on the names." Monica Goodling testified that it was "Mr. Sampson's list" and that McNulty knew that the White House was involved in creating the list. McNulty claimed that Goodling's statement under oath was wrong. Kyle Sampson testified that the attorney general was responsible and had definitely been involved in the process.

OUTLINE Dismissals 2005-2006
Definitive list, perhaps compare to non-dismissed, say number of total departures?
 * Resigned for opportunity
 * Public office
 * Judge appointment
 * Private Practice
 * Dismissed
 * Cites for certainty that they were dismissed

(More outline needed here for this section)

Dismissals 2005-2006
(This sort of paragraph is to be avoided, IMHO; looking for cohesive text, and I don't think we need all the details now that we have the timeline article. I suspect that much of this detail was to document that the AG was not being forthright in his testimony/statements.  We should perhaps develop a separate section on that later in the article.) to an assistant in the Attorney General's office, scheduling a meeting in Gonzales' conference room with senior Justice Department advisors to discuss "U.S. Attorney Appointments." Those asked to be scheduled in the meeting included Gonzales, Sampson, Monica Goodling, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, Associated Deputy A.G. William Moschella, Michael Elston, and Michael Battle. On November 27, 2006, Gonzales met with senior advisors to discuss the plan. The Justice Department did not receive White House approval for the firings until early December. As late as December 2, Sampson had written to Michael Elston that the Justice department was "[s]till waiting for green light from White House" with regards to the firing. Deputy White House counsel William K. Kelley responded on December 4, 2006, stating that "We're a go for the U.S. Atty plan...[the White House office of legislative affairs], political, communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes."
 * On November 21, 2006, Sampson sent an e-mail

On December 7, 2006, Justice Department official Michael A. Battle informed seven U.S. Attorneys that they were being dismissed.

Although seven attorneys were dismissed on December 7, 2006, subsequent disclosures show that three or more additional attorneys were dismissed under similar circumstances between 2005-2006. U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins in Arkansas had been informed in June 2006 that he was to be replaced, and he resigned, effective December 20, 2006, several days after the public announcement of the appointment of his successor Timothy Griffin.

Three or more USAs had been forced out prior to the December 7 dismissals without documented misconduct in office. Such dismissals are almost as unusual as dismissing 7 at once.

Likely and unlikely rationale for dismissals of some of the USAs
Administration repeatedly claims that the reasons were broadly performance related and deny any political motivation, yet such claims are in stark disagreement with the facts. No documentation of complaints to USAs to try to remedy the (non-existent) problems, most USAs had been reviewed with favorable performance, no documentation at DoJ specifying reasons for dismissal. AG still hasn't articulated reasons for the dismissals, and USAs themselves don't know the reasons for their dismissal. Cummins dismissal is documented to be political.

References List for Draft - May as well start here.
=Old Section=



Administration planning to replace U.S. Attorneys
In January 2005, deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove asked deputy counsel David Leitch "how we planned to proceed regarding U.S. Attorneys, whether we were going to allow all to stay, request resignations from all and accept only some of them, or selectively replace them, etc." In reply, Kyle Sampson, then Department of Justice counsel to Attorney General John Ashcroft,  wrote that it would be "weird to ask them to leave before completing at least a 4-year term", that they "would like to replace 15–20 percent of the current U.S. Attorneys" and that the rest "are doing a great job, are loyal Bushies, etc." The White House at one time suggested that the plan for dismissals came from White House counsel Harriet Miers, who left the White House in January 2007 before the dismissal received public attention.

In February 2005, Sampson became Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

In March 2005, Sampson "came up with a checklist. He rated each of the U.S. attorneys with criteria that appeared to value political allegiance as much as job performance. He recommended retaining 'strong U.S. Attorneys who have ... exhibited loyalty to the President and Attorney General.' He suggested 'removing weak U.S. Attorneys who have ... chafed against Administration initiatives'".

In September 2005, Sampson became Gonzales's Chief of Staff at the Department of Justice.

Sampson wrote in January 2006 to Miers that he recommended that the Department of Justice and the Office of the Counsel to the President work together to seek the replacement of a limited number of U.S. Attorneys, and that by limiting the number of attorneys "targeted for removal and replacement" it would "mitigat[e] the shock to the system that would result from an across-the-board firing."

On February 12, 2006, Monica Goodling sent a spreadsheet of each U.S. Attorney's political activities and memberships in conservative political groups, in an email to senior Administration officials, with the comment "This is the chart that the AG requested".

(In late February 2006, the White House and the Senate had a minor dispute over the nomination of a U.S. Attorney to Utah. The White House favored Kyle Sampson for the position, while Senator Hatch (R, Utah) favored Brett Tolman.  Tolman was eventually nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate. )

Sampson strongly urged using changes to the law governing U.S. Attorney appointments to bypass Congressional confirmation, writing in a September 17, 2006 memo to Harriet Miers: "I am only in favor of executing on a plan to push some USAs out if we really are ready and willing to put in the time necessary to select candidates and get them appointed...It will be counterproductive to DOJ operations if we push USAs out and then don't have replacements ready to roll immediately...I strongly recommend that as a matter of administration, we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the AG to make USA appointments...[By avoiding Senate confirmation] we can give far less deference to home state senators and thereby get 1.) our preferred person appointed and 2.) do it far faster and more efficiently at less political costs to the White House."

In October 2006, George W. Bush told Alberto Gonzales that he had received complaints that some of the U.S. Attorneys had not pursued certain voter-fraud investigations. The complaints came from Republican officials, who demanded fraud investigations into a number of Democratic campaigns. The 2006 United States general election was forthcoming (November) and Republicans were concerned about losing Congressional seats to Democrats. (The election in fact did overturn Congressional control to the Democratic party).

Furthermore, "The documents show that in one case, officials were eager to free up the prosecutor’s slot in Little Rock, Ark., so it could be filled by Timothy Griffin, a GOP operative close to White House political guru Karl Rove — at all costs." According to Newsweek, "Kyle Sampson, Gonzales's chief of staff, developed the list of eight prosecutors to be fired last October—with input from the White House."

On November 21, 2006, Sampson sent an e-mail to an assistant in the Attorney General's office, scheduling a meeting in Gonzales' conference room with senior Justice Department advisors to discuss "U.S. Attorney Appointments." Those asked to be scheduled in the meeting included Gonzales, Sampson, Monica Goodling, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, Associated Deputy A.G. William Moschella, Michael Elston, and Michael Battle. On November 27, 2006, Gonzales met with senior advisors to discuss the plan. The Justice Department did not receive White House approval for the firings until early December. As late as December 2, Sampson had written to Michael Elston that the Justice department was "[s]till waiting for green light from White House" with regards to the firing. Deputy White House counsel William K. Kelley responded on December 4, 2006, stating that "We're a go for the U.S. Atty plan...[the White House office of legislative affairs], political, communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes."

On December 7, 2006, Justice Department official Michael A. Battle informed seven U.S. Attorneys that they were being dismissed.

Although seven attorneys were dismissed on December 7, 2006, subsequent disclosures show that three or more additional attorneys were dismissed under similar circumstances between 2005-2006. U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins in Arkansas had been informed in June 2006 that he was to be replaced, and he resigned, effective December 20, 2006, several days after the public announcement of the appointment of his successor Timothy Griffin.

=All References, NEW Section and OLD together=